Avalanche Film Room: Solving the overtime riddle

The Avalanche improved to 3-12 in games that extend beyond regulation on Tuesday night with a dramatic comeback win over the Detroit Red Wings. It took 15 tries but the Avalanche finally had a regular, normal overtime victory as their first two wins beyond regulation ended with a power-play goal in Anaheim and then last week when the Avs beat the Vancouver Canucks in a shootout.

After the win, I wanted to go back and look and see what the Avs did differently in order to get the win this time. With all the conversations about coaching ineptitude or lineup issues causing the overtime struggles, when you go back and see what happens in a game they win, it sure doesn’t look very complicated.

Let’s dig into just how the Avs walked away with the win.

Puck possession is key

We pick up the action about 40 seconds before the game actually ended as Detroit controlled the puck. I chose this spot because it was the beginning of the shift for Detroit’s key player during this time frame, Andreas Athanasiou (72 in white). The clip above begins with Dylan Larkin heading to the bench and Athanasiou jumping onto the ice while Trevor Daley makes a clean zone entry. Colorado’s three skaters all maintain their discipline and force Daley wide and instead of trying to force the offense, he does what teams consistently do now in overtime when nothing is open – retreat to the neutral zone while maintaining puck possession. This is a big factor in how overtime games get decided these days so I figured I’d take a section to highlight something that’s not very spectacular but still important.

Athanasiou takes over

I mentioned Athanasiou as Detroit’s key player throughout this sequence. This is when it really begins as Daley moved the puck back to him in the neutral zone. From here, Athanasiou did what he does best – skates really damn fast. He gets geared up and enters the Colorado zone with speed, forcing the Avs to back off a bit and respect what’s happening. Of all people, Nathan MacKinnon actually keeps a good enough gap and puts his stick out there where Athanasiou decides to drop the puck off.

This proves important for two reasons: Detroit’s most dangerous player on the ice no longer has the puck and it results in a long-range wrist shot that has very little chance of going on. This is quality defense from a Colorado team that has been prone to huge mental errors in overtime this season. If it looks boring to watch, well, good defense always does. There’s almost nothing sexy about guys being in the right place on defense but as we see here, it’s pretty darn effective.

The close call

This is where the Avalanche could use a little fine-tuning. We’ve seen Mikko Rantanen get a little overzealous in his puck pursuits before and this was another case where miscommunication between Rantanen and MacKinnon almost proved very costly. Detroit essentially runs a wheel play here and Rantanen just sticks to the puck the entire time while MacKinnon never switches off his man.

Athanasiou breaks through the middle of the ice wide open and while Tyson Barrie is back there, he initially broke towards the puck, leaving him out of position and retreating in desperation when Athanasiou gets the puck. As fast as he is, Barrie was badly beaten from the outset and the truth is Detroit played a two-man game and created their best scoring chance in a two versus three situation.

The real difference here is Athanasiou misses the net with his shot. It goes high and wide and caroms far away. The last little key to highlight is looking where Athanasiou is when his shot misses. He’s putting on the brakes and slowing down while heading behind the net. This will prove to be a costly outcome for the Red Wings.

Winning the game

The missed shot and where Athanasiou is positioned creates an odd-man rush for the Avalanche as neither Detroit player were into the zone and able to compete for the rebound. A major key here is Barrie, even though he never touches the puck. Instead of slowing down and following Athanasiou behind the net, Barrie makes a soft turn and immediately gets up the ice to join the rush.

Rantanen was the first man on the puck and he has the easiest job of all. He just skates in a straight line with the puck and leaves the spacing to his two teammates. He crosses the blue line and drops the puck to MacKinnon, who is in the center of the ice, and Barrie’s hard drive to the net opens the shooting lane for MacKinnon.

This is where Barrie’s offensive instincts are on full display. His aggressiveness in jumping into the play and then driving the net put the Avs in a position where they are all-in on scoring here. If they don’t, they’re going to create the same kind of odd-man rush Detroit did when they missed their opportunity just seconds earlier. Such is the nature of three versus three overtime in the NHL.

MacKinnon smokes one past Jonathan Bernier, saying postgame the scouting report said high on his glove side was a place where Bernier is frequently beat for goals. Nailed it.

A closer look

The inclusion of this gif is really about a zoomed in look at the game-winning goal. You can really see how easy Rantanen’s job was here and how Barrie driving the net forced Detroit to cover differently. If Barrie is hanging back or acting as the trailer on the play, Detroit could have collapsed on MacKinnon and forced him to dance through them or make a pass to a lower danger area of the ice. Because Barrie drove the net the way he did, it opened the shooting lane that MacKinnon used for the game-winner. This is just good team hockey right here.

As a sidenote, Athanasiou’s decision to head behind the Avalanche net and slow down took him completely out of this play. You’ll see he’s just getting back involved in the play when MacKinnon scores. I’m not sure if Athanasiou thought the puck hit the netting and should’ve been blown dead but he put his team in a tough position and the Avalanche capitalized on the mistake.

The flex!

This gif is simply me enjoying the slow-motion capture of the flex on MacKinnon’s stick as he’s shooting. No analysis, just something I enjoy that you might, too. Heck of a shot, by the way.